Symphony Stories - Little Symphony

SYMPHONY
STORIES

By ADELINE McCALL

Children's Concert Division
THE NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Benjamin Swalin, Director

THE NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

THE LITTLE SYMPHONY

Benjamin Swalin, Director

Strings

5 first violins

4 second violins

2 violas

2 cellos

1 double-bass

Brasses

2 French horns
1 trumpet

Woodwinds

1 flute
\ 1 oboe

[ 1 English horn
( 1 clarinet
[ 1 bass clarinet

1 bassoon

Percussion

Tympani

Percussion instruments

Celeste

Piano

Commentator: Maxine Swalin

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE!

Do you have a birthday on the day of the Little Symphony concert in your
town? If so, look over the instruments listed above and decide which one you
would like to have play a surprise tune for you. Every boy and girl in the
audience whose birthday comes on the date of the program will be invited to go
up on the stage and choose the instrument he most wants to hear.

CHILDREN'S CONCERT PROGRAM

Spring Tour
1950

Excerpts from

SYMPHONY in C MAJOR Bizet

I. Allegro vivo
II. Adagio

III. Allegro vivace

IV. Allegro vivace

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE!

MARCH OF THE TOYS from "Babes in Toyland" _ Herbert

PRAELUDIUM ,. Jarnefelt

EVERYBODY SING — COME THOU ALMIGHTY KING

DANCES from "Henry VHP' German

Morris Dance
Torch Dance

SLEIGH RIDE Anderson

COUNTRY GARDENS Grainger

Good Concert Manners

1. Come in politely and sit down in your seat.

2. DON'T TALK to anyone after the music starts.

3. When the concert is over go out as politely as you came in.

DON'T FORGET TO CLAP!

BIZET

1838-1875

OVER A HUNDRED YEARS AGO in Paris a little baby boy was taken to

the church to be christened. He was given the name Alexandre Cesar Leopold
Bizet (pronounced Bee-zay). The boy's godfather decided that this was much
too long a name for so small a child, and soon he was calling him Georges.
Before long his christening name was entirely forgotten and he grew up as
Georges Bizet.

LIKE MOZART, little Georges was a wonder child. He could play the piano
at four, and he learned his notes along with his alphabet. His mother, who was
a pianist, gave Georges lessons until he was nine years old, and then a very
wonderful thing happened. In the city of Paris there was a fine conservatory
where music was taught by the best musicians in France. Georges's father,
himself a teacher of singing, decided that this was where his little boy must
study. No-one had ever heard of a nine-year-old boy entering a conservatory,
but he was given an examination and allowed to play for one of the officials.
Georges performed like a prodigy, and read at sight so remarkably well that he
was admitted to the conservatory at once.

IT WAS NO TIME AT ALL until Georges was winning many prizes. He
won prizes in piano and organ playing, and also in composition. He was
popular with all his teachers because he learned quickly and worked happily at
all the tasks they gave him to do. He had a friendly, good-natured way about
him and he was always bubbling over with new ideas and plans.

ONE DAY, when Georges was eighteen, the greatest honor that could come
to any conservatory student was given to him. He won the Prix de Rome. This
prize gave the winner the opportunity to go to Italy and study. Georges packed
up and soon set out for Rome. According to the terms of the prize which he
had won, Georges was supposed to send back a Mass to the professors of the
Academy at the end of the first year. When the year was over, he had finished
a composition, but it was not a mass. Instead he sent in a comic opera! You
can imagine how surprised the directors of the conservatory were to find that
the bold young man had dared to break the rules. But the music was so de-
lightful that they decided to accept it.

WHEN GEORGES BIZET RETURNED from Italy he had to earn a living,
and he found it more difficult than he expected. At first he orchestrated dance
music; then he compiled vocal anthologies and scored waltzes for beginners.
He often worked fifteen hours a day. As he labored, he dreamed of writing
operas for the "Opera Comique." And later, his dream was realized for he
wrote a number of operas; including the famous "Carmen," which has been
played in nearly all the countries of the world.

SYMPHONY IN C MAJOR

Op. 1- 1855

GEORGES BIZET wrote his first symphony— the Symphony in C Major-
when he was only seventeen. At the time he was a student in the Paris Con-
servatory, and his manuscript stayed there undiscovered in the library for many
years. Finally, in 1935, eighty years after it was written, the symphony was
published in Vienna. It had its first performance in Basel on February 26th,
1935. A year later it was played at a concert of the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty.

The first movement of the symphony is lively and fast. It is followed by a
slow movement and two fast movements.

FIRST MOVEMENT— Allegro vivo

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The second movement begins quietly with a theme played by the oboe. Ac-
companying this smooth oboe melody the violas are plucked — "pizzicato."

SECOND MOVEMENT— Adagio

[Time: 4 min.]

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The third movement, similar to a Scherzo, is in three-four time. The open-
ing theme in G is gay and light.

THIRD MOVEMENT— Allegro vivace

[Time: l'/2 min.]

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The last movement or Finale is brilliant and fast. The violins sound as if
they are playing in perpetual motion.

FOURTH MOVEMENT— Allegro vivace

[Time: 2% min.]

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MARCH OF THE TOYS

Victor Herbert, 1859-1924

VICTOR HERBERT is known as an American composer but he was not
born in this country. Almost a hundred years ago, if you had been in the city
of Dublin, you might have found a little Irish boy with blue eyes and black curly
hair, and his pretty mother, getting ready to leave for England. Victor's father
died when he was quite small, and he and his mother went to live with Victor's
grandfather, Samuel Lover, who was a writer, a painter and also a composer.
Many artists and musicians came to visit him.

AT HIS GRANDFATHERS HOUSE Victor met a famous cello player who
told him stories about New York and the wonderful American country across
the sea. Perhaps this is why he later became a cellist himself and moved to the
United States to make his home. But. in the meantime, he went to school in
Germany and lived there for twenty years. When his grandfather died his
mother married a German doctor and Victor thought that he, too, might become
a physician. His parents soon discovered, however, that Victor was more in-
terested in music than in medicine. So, after all, he was allowed to realize his
dream and make music his life work.

AS A CELLIST Victor Herbert played in many German orchestras. When
he first came to America with his opera singer wife, they both were engaged by
the Metropolitan; he played the cello in the orchestra and she sang. Later,
Herbert held many important positions in the United States. He was assistant
conductor of two orchestras, bandmaster of the Twenty-second Regiment Band,
and leader and organizer of his own orchestra which toured the country. As a
composer, Victor Herbert made a name for himself by writing gay-hearted light
operas. He also wrote two grand operas, but his operettas, over forty of them,
were his most successful works.

MARCH OF THE TOYS is from one of Victor Herbert's best known and
most loved operettas, "Babes in Toyland." It comes at the beginning of the
second act. The scene is a toyshop, and at the opening of the march there is a
fanfare of toy trumpets. The toys seem to come to life and there is a parade.
The parade theme is introduced by violins, flutes and clarinets:

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LATER WE HEAR another more stirring melody which suggests that all the
dolls, bears, rabbits and tin soldiers are out for a good time:

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PRAELUDIUM

Armas Jarnefelt, 1869

ARMAS JARNEFELT is a Finnish composer, fellow-countryman of Jan
Sibelius. In his own land he is well known for his many musical activities. Like
Edward German he conducted numerous theatre orchestras in Europe. After a
number of years in Germany, Jarnefelt went back to Finland as director of the
Opera in Helsinki. He also later conducted the Opera in Stockholm.

THE COMPOSITIONS OF JARNEFELT include several works for orches-
tra, piano, choral and chamber mush. He also has written some interesting
songs. Two of his better known small compositions for orchestra are a lullaby
(Berceuse) and the little prelude (Praeludium) which you will hear on this
program.

THE PRAELUDIUM is a very good example of what is known in music as
the ABA form. This means that the first part of the piece is repeated at the
end. In between there is a different or contrasting sction. In listening to the
music, try to tell where the "B" music begins and then watch for the return of
the "A" music.

Below are the opening measures of the "A" section. You will hear the oboe
standing out above the other instruments.

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In the "B" music we find quite a contrast. All the quick restless movement
of the first section now changes to a slow, clear melody. Listen to the violins
playing the following phrases:

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The ABA form applies to other things as well as to music. In your house
if you see a door and another door exactly like it, with a window in between,
you have ABA form. Or, if you have three pieces of candy and place them
in the following order:

Chocolate bar Peppermint stick Chocolate bar

you could say these pieces of candy have the form ABA.

How many other things can you think of that illustrate "A B A"?

Can you paint a picture showing an A B A pattern?

DANCES FROM «HENRY Vlll»

Edward German, 1862-1936

SIR EDWARD GERMAN, whose real name was Edward German Jones, grew
up as a little boy in Whitchurch, England. He always loved music so it is not
surprising to hear that he taught himself to play the violin and that he organ-
ized a band in his native village. He later was a violinist in a number of
orchestras and finally became one of England's most famous theatrical con-
ductors.

BECAUSE HE LOVED THE THEATRE Edward German's music was
composed mainly to be used as incidental pieces which were played between the
acts of a drama or in a light opera. Most people know him as a composer of
theatre music. But before he died at the age of seventy-four he had composed
two symphonies, a symphonic poem and several suites, a Welsh Rhapsody for
orchestra, and many popular songs.

IN 1888-9 EDWARD GERMAN CONDUCTED THE ORCHESTRA at the
famous Globe Theatre where many Shakespearian plays were performed. He
wrote incidental music for Richard Mansfield's production of King Richard III
which was so well-liked that Sir Henry Irving asked him if he would compose
some music for the play, Henry VIII. The dances which you will hear are a
part of this incidental music. They were played for many entertainments and
became known in nearly every home in England.

THE MORRIS DANCE has always been a great favorite with the English
people. A long time ago — in the 15th and 16th centuries — morris dancers dressed
in Moorish costumes. They blackened their faces and tied small bells to their
legs. English morris dancers no longer are black-faced, but often they wear
lovely little bells which ring softly as they move about The music for Edward
German's Morris Dance starts with a rather long introduction. Then violins,
oboe, clarinets and horns play the opening measures of the dance itself:
Allegro giocoso

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Allegro molto

The TORCH DANCE is extremely fast and lively. This is how it begins:

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SLEIGH RIDE

LeRoy Anderson, 1908

LEROY ANDERSON is a young American composer who has recently
written a number of popular orchestra pieces. His "Fiddle Faddle", "Chicken
Reel" and "Syncopated Clock" are often heard on the radio. Many of his
compositions have been played by the Boston Pops Orchestra and he has ap-
peared frequently with them as guest conductor.

MR. ANDERSON'S home is now in Brooklyn, but he was bom in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He was educated in the Cambridge High and Latin School,
and later he went to Harvard where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in
1929 and a Master of Arts in 1930. He studied organ with Henry Gideon in
Boston and double-bass with Gaston Defresne of the Boston Symphony Or-
chestra. Walter Spalding and Edward Ballantine were his theory teachers at
Harvard. He took composition under Walter Piston and George Enesco.

FOR TWO YEARS LeRoy Anderson taught music at Radcliffe College. He
has also served as music director and arranger for the Harvard Band. From
1929 to 1935 he was the organist and choirmaster of the East Congregational
Church in Milton, Massachusetts. A variety of experiences such as these have
made Mr. Anderson a well-rounded musician.

DURING THE WAR LeRoy Anderson was with the American forces in
Iceland. He joined the Army as a private in 1942 and was discharged as a
captain in February, 1946. From this we know that a composer can also be a
good soldier.

SLEIGH RIDE is rapidly becoming one of the Anderson favorites. Its first
performance was by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. The music
describes a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh over the ice and snow. It is full of
jingling sleigh bells and an occasional crack of a whip. Do you suppose Mr.
Anderson thought of writing this piece on one of the many cold, wintry nights
that he spent in Iceland? Or do you think it tells about a sleigh ride that he
took when he was a little boy?

At the beginning of the piece there is a short introduction played by the
woodwinds, violins and trumpets. Then comes the jolly sleigh bell theme which
is written below:

Allegro con ritmo

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COUNTRY GARDENS

Percy Grainger, 1882 -

PERCY GRAINGER was born in Brighton, Australia, but he is now an
American citizen. He lives in a faded brown two-story house on Cromwell
Place in White Plains, New York, with his Swedish wife, Ella Strom Grainger.
Mrs. Grainger is a poetess and painter. Everyone who knows Mr. and Mrs.
Grainger says that they are much alike in their tastes and habits. And some of
Percy Grainger's habits seem very extraordinary. He gives many piano con-
certs all over the United States. Although he travels a great deal he will
never ride in a sleeping car. He carries his lunch of cheese and hard biscuits
in a paper bag and eats whenever he gets hungry.

IF YOU HAPPENED to sit down on the train next to Mr. Grainger you
might hear him singing a song like this:

"Oh, bold William Phelps snatched a pig from the market,
He turn tittie turn tittie teedle dum dee."

ON THE TRAIN Mr. Grainger spends most of his time composing new
pieces on folk tunes. His compositions are unusually successful with audiences
wherever they are played, because people the world over love folk melodies.
Whenever concerts are not too far away, Percy Grainger hikes to the towns in
old khaki clothes, carrying a rucksack. He ships his dress suit ahead, and
changes his clothes before going on the stage.

PERCY GRAINGER is a very kind and generous person. He gives away
thousands of dollars to relatives and poor musicians. Almost anyone who
writes him and says he is having a hard time will be sympathetically treated.
Once a man in New Mexico whose farm was ruined by dust storms wrote him
that he admired his music and hoped to compose some like it but that his crops
had failed. Mr. Grainger mailed him a check for two thousand dollars.

PERCY GRAINGER has appeared as guest conductor with many symphony ^B
orchestras. One time he came to North Carolina and conducted the North
Carolina Symphony. He was so interested in the Symphony that he made no
charge for his services. Mr. Grainger is an authority on folk music and he owns
a large collection of folk records. Professional musicians think very highly of
Percy Grainger's talents both as a pianist and as a composer.

COUNTRY GARDENS has for many years been a popular favorite with
pianists. Its lively rhythm and gay spirit suggest English folk dancers on the
village green.
Allegro moderato

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JUNIOR MEMBERSHIPS

HUNDREDS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE ALREADY JUNIOR
MEMBERS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY SOCIETY. With their
JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP tickets, these students may attend the ADULT con-
cert which the Little Symphony plays at night.

MANY ELEMENTARY AND JUNIOR HIGH students who hear the free
program in the afternoon want to go again for the night concert. The Orches-
tra plays a different program in the evening.

JUNIOR MEMBERSHIPS are now available to ALL STUDENTS in the
Grades, Junior and Senior High School for only 50c plus 10c tax.

YOUR JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP TICKET

Will admit you to the night concert in your town

Will entitle you to vote for your favorite number from this list:

Anderson

FIDDLE FADDLE

Anderson

SLEIGH RIDE

Anderson

THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK

De Rose

DEEP PURPLE

Grieg

ANITRA'S DANCE

Guion

SHEEP AND GOAT WALKIN' TO PASTURE

Guion

TURKEY IN THE STRAW

Schubert

AVE MARIA

Tschaikowsky

NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART

HOW TO VOTE

ON THE NIGHT OF THE CONCERT WRITE YOUR CHOICE ON A SLIP OF
PAPER AND HAND IT TO THE USHER

You will hear the Orchestra play the winning selection.

HOW TO BECOME A JUNIOR MEMBER OF THE N. C.
SYMPHONY SOCIETY

1. Get your Membership Ticket from the Junior Membership Chairman NOW,
in advance of the concert.

OR

2. Buy it at the ticket office on the date of the concert.